#ROW80 - Pre-Holiday Pep Talk

The holidays were already a busy time for me, as they are for most folks. This is really my first holiday season as an author, though, and it adds a new dimension to the chaos.  Honestly, and I'm sure other authors will back me up, this is the busiest season of the year.  There are so many giveaways and chances for exposure, and, if you're like me, you're probably trying to squeeze out your latest project, too.  It's a prime time to be a reader, I tell you.  There's so much to pay attention to.

But before I get into that too deeply, let's take a look at the goals:

• Lesson Learned - I'm dreaming of a write Christmas.  Get it?  It's better if you sing it, trust me.  The lesson?  Christmas time is a time of writerly dreams.  A good Christmas season can totally make your year.  It's a great time for interviews and giveaways.  It all generates good Christmas cheer, which can get you readers in the long run.  It's a gift that goes both ways.  You readers get free books, free chances to know you better, or a free introduction... and you get more readers.  So best of luck, my fellow writers, at making the most of this Christmas season.  Try to look at it as an opportunity (and not just stressful... I know it's hard).
• WIP Editing - 12/14 chapters.  For the editing goal, I'm not really giving myself my customary 1 day per week off.  Two chapters a day, 7 days, means 14 chapters.  Considering the holiday weekend, I'm thrilled about 12.  I only did one chapter two of those days (so it was sort of two half days), but that's still pretty good.  I'm chugging along and I should have my first past done well before I start getting feedback from betas/editors, which is the real goal.
• Blogging - 3/3 at the gaming blog.  This makes 3/3 here.  I even drafted my monthly personal post this morning, so that'll go up tonight.  I'm not writing as much fiction (I've paused the story here), but I find it tough to write fiction when I'm in "editor" mode.  The important thing is to keep writing, even if it's not fiction, and I nailed that.

A good week, all things considered.  Typtophan ain't got $#!+ on me.  It may have been a bit of a struggle (especially with the video gaming I mentioned yesterday), but I'm keeping up with things.

I have several neat events coming up this week, as well.  Tomorrow, I plan to post my Christmas memory for fellow ROWer Nadja Notariani's 12 Days of Christmas Reading List.  There'll be a giveaway of a whole host of books through her site, so check it out.  Also, I have a review and interview slated to go up really soon on Once Upon A Time, a book blog run by a gaming friend.  She'll be doing a giveaway involving my book as well.  That's two chances for a free copy!  (Or, you could take advantage of any of my  Special Offers, which can almost be boiled down to: email me and I'll probably give you a free ebook.)  

Finally, I've got a partnership going with another author, Isaac McBeth.  He's a friend of a friend (best man at my wedding hooked us up), and we've had the pleasure of chatting via email and on the phone a few times.  Great guy, and he has a book (epic fantasy, so right up my alley, though I've not had a chance to read it yet) coming out just in time for Christmas, and wanted to offer my book free with his (and visa versa)!  Sounded like a great idea to me, so we're getting that set up as well.  Look for more info to follow.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm in a bit of a Christmas giving kind of mood.  I love giving away free ebooks!  I guess you could say that I'm simply confident you'll enjoy what I've written enough to come back and support me.  Plus, I would hate to have money be the hurdle keeping you from good stories.  I mean, we authors want to make a living at this, and supporting us really is in your best interest (I could write so much more if I could ditch the day job), but I don't want to bankrupt anyone, either.  There are plenty of ways to support an author that aren't monetary (spread the word!), so really, don't let stories just be about the $$ this  Christmas.  Sharing is caring, they say.

And to my ROW friends out there reading this, I'm more than happy to partner with any of you as well (just shoot me an email).  In fact, my brain child (had I the time and talent to make it a reality) would be a bookstore that worked sort of like Google+, where we could add each other to partner "circles" that simply allow people to "buy one get one free" with any of our books.  Just imagine the choices!  Plus, we're all in this boat together.  I don't look at any of you as competitors, but rather as co-ROWers (both metaphorically and, uh, acronymically?): if we all pull as hard as we can, the whole boat can take us to some pretty cool places.  And there's room for plenty of success stories on this ship.

So, I guess that's my little pre-holiday pep talk.  We'll close with the ever-popular glance at the word counts:

• Project Fiction: 0 (Editing Mode)
• Since last check in: 4,147
• Grand Total for Round 4: 47,302